Peel has never been the capital of the Island. However, Peel is the island's main fishing port, and Peel Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Sodor and Man.

Peel is sometimes referred to as the rose red city due to the red sandstone used to build the castle and other important buildings^{[citation needed]} As it is in the west, it is also called sunset city, although it does not enjoy sunsets over the Irish Sea as Peel Hill is in the way. Peel is a popular seaside destination for Manx citizens and visitors in summer and is noted for its narrow streets of fishermen's cottages and a Victorian promenade which was built on reclaimed land and a small construction line built for this purpose, as well as a sandy beach. In these respects it closely resembles Padstow in Cornwall. Often at least one seal can be seen in or close to the harbour.^{[citation needed]}For many years the main industries in the town were fishing, trading and shipbuilding.

There is evidence of local settlers in the Mesolithic Age on both St Patrick's Isle and the nearby Peel Hill, and Neolithic farmers are believed to have settled in the area. About 550, a Celtic monastery was founded on St Patrick's Isle^{[citation needed]} Norsemen settled there in about 800^{[citation needed]} with the harbour on the river Neb used as a shelter for their longships. In 1228 Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles, beached his fleet in the inlet. It was attacked and burned by his half-brother Ragnald.

The town developed on the east bank of the river and the settlement was known as Holmtown until the 17th century, with the earliest recorded habitation having been in the 13th century. Further development, apart from the late 19th century guest house building on the sea front, has been inland, away from the coast. Peel Castle would eventually become a joint seat of government with Castle Rushen until the mid 17th century^{[citation needed]}. The name Peel was given to the castle by the English rulers and the settlement then became Peeltown until about 1860. By the time the local councils were established in 1883, the name Peel referred to the town rather than the castle. In the 19th century schooners built in Peel traded around northwest Europe and Peel fishing boats fished around the island and further afield to the southern coast of Ireland and near to the Shetlands. The harbour and breakwater were gradually improved, with much of the local income being from the export of salted herring. By the 1880s, fishing was the main employer with about 3,000 men and boys employed, with ancillary businesses such as shipbuilding providing employment to hundreds more. However, with what is now seen as over-fishing, the number of boats leaving for Southern Ireland dwindled from 300 in 1880 to a handful by 1915.^[1]

After the railway arrived in Peel in 1873, Peel started to develop as a tourist resort, with guest houses and hotels built alomng the shoreline and headlands, and then the promenade was added. Tourism gradually grew in the town. During World War II Knockaloe farm, at Patrick to the south of the town, was made into a internment camp and housed up to 30,000 German, Austrian and Turkish civilians. In 1940, guest houses at one end of the promenade were requisitioned to become Peveril Internment Camp, housing those suspected of having sympathy for the Nazi regime under Defence Regulation 18B. By the mid-1960s the Peel to Douglas railway line closed and tourism saw a decline. Fishing from Peel has seen periods of upturn and decline. For a number of years the annual Viking Festival has attracted visitors to the resort.^[1] In 2005, a new floodgate was installed at Peel to retain the waters of the River Neb and thus enable the moored boats to float at low tide.

It is the birthplace of the Peel microcars made by the Peel Engineering Company in the 1960s, the only Manx cars ever built.

In 1979 the Viking longboat Odin's Raven sailed from Norway to Peel to commemorate the Manx millennium.

Amenities